Pope's butler 'feels guilty,' but claims he's innocent

CNS PHOTO | L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO

Pope Benedict's former butler, Paolo Gabriele, seated in a grey suit, is pictured during the opening of his trial at the Vatican Sept.29.

October 8, 2012

CINDY WOODEN
AND CAROL GLATZ
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

Paolo Gabriele, the papal butler charged with stealing and leaking papal correspondence, said he is innocent of charges of aggravated theft, but "I feel guilty for having betrayed the trust the Holy Father placed in me."

"I loved him like a son," Gabriele said of the pope during the second day of his trial.

The morning session of the trial Oct. 2 also featured brief testimony by Cristina Cernetti, one of the consecrated laywomen who work in the papal apartment; and longer testimony by Msgr. Georg Ganswein, Pope Benedict's personal secretary.

Ganswein, who described himself as "extremely precise," said he never noticed any documents missing.

But when he examined what Vatican police had confiscated from Gabriele's Vatican apartment, he said he discovered both photocopies and originals of documents going back to 2006, when Gabriele began working in the papal apartment.

Taking the stand first, Gabriele said widespread concern about what was happening in the Vatican led him to collect photocopies of private papal correspondence and, eventually, to leak it to a journalist.

"I was looking for a person with whom I could vent about a situation that had become insupportable for many in the Vatican," he testified Oct. 2.

Gabriele told the court that no one encouraged him to steal and leak the documents.

Vatican responds to accusations it maltreated inmate

CINDY WOODEN
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

VATICAN CITY – Paolo Gabriele, the papal butler on trial in the Vatican, told judges that for 20 days he was held in a tiny cell where he could not even fully extend both arms and where Vatican police kept the lights on 24 hours a day.

Gabriele's testimony about the conditions of his detention after his arrest in May came in response to questions posed by his lawyer Oct. 2, the second day of his trial on charges of aggravated theft for allegedly stealing reserved papal correspondence and leaking it to a reporter.

After the testimony, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said the Vatican court had ordered an investigation into the claims.

The Gendarme Corps of Vatican City State, as the Vatican police force is formally known, issued a statement saying Gabriele was held in a small cell for 20 days while previously scheduled remodeling work was sped up and completed on a larger room for prisoners.

The police said the work included improvements "responding to the requirements requested by the Convention Against Torture," a 1984 international agreement, which the Vatican signed.

As for the lights being left on, the police said the decision was made that it was a necessary precaution to ensure Gabriele did not hurt himself. The statement added, however, that Gabriele was given a sleep mask.

Gabriele's Vatican physician made regular visits, the statement said, adding that Gabriele told the doctor that he was "resting peacefully" and, in fact, was not as nervous as he had been before his arrest.

Full meals were delivered to him three times a day, and he ate them in the company of police officers.

He was taken outside each day and offered use of the police gym, although he declined that offer.

Although he said he acted on his own initiative, Gabriele told the court he did so after "sharing confidences" about the "general atmosphere" in the Vatican with four people in particular: retired Cardinal Paolo Sardi, a former official in the Vatican Secretariat of State; Cardinal Angelo Comastri, archpriest of St. Peter's Basilica; Ingrid Stampa, a longtime assistant to Pope Benedict, going back to his time as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger; and Bishop Francesco Cavina of Carpi, who worked in the secretariat of state until 2011.

Gabriele said that although he had set aside some documents previously, he began collecting them seriously in 2010 after Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, then secretary-general of Vatican City State, was reported to have run into resistance in his attempt to bring spending under control and bring transparency to the process of granting work contracts to outside companies.

The archbishop is now nuncio, or ambassador, to the United States.

Asked to describe his role in the papal household, Gabriele said he served Pope Benedict his meals, informed the Vatican Secretariat of State of the gifts given to the pope, packed the pope's suitcases and accompanied him on trips, and did other "small tasks" assigned to him by Ganswein.

"I was the layman closest to the Holy Father, there to respond to his immediate needs," Gabriele said.

Being so close to the pope, Gabriele said he became aware of how "easy it is to manipulate the one who holds decision-making power in his hands."

Gabriele had told investigators that he had acted out of concern for the pope, who he believed was not being fully informed about the corruption and careerism in the Vatican.

TRIED TO SPEAK

Under questioning by his lawyer, he said he never showed any of the documents to the pope, but tried – conversationally – to bring some concerns to the pope's attention.

The Vatican prosecutor objected to further questioning about Gabriele's motives, saying they "don't matter, we must discuss the facts." The judges agreed and ordered the defendant's lawyer to move on.

Gabriele's lawyer also asked him several questions about the 60 days he spent in Vatican detention, including whether it was true that he first was held in a tiny room and that, for the first 15 to 20 days, the Vatican police left the lights on 24 hours a day. Gabriele said both were true.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, later told reporters that Judge Nicola Picardi, the Vatican prosecutor, had opened an investigation into the conditions under which Gabriele was detained.

GIFTS FOR POPE

Vatican investigators had said they found in Gabriele's Vatican apartment three items given to Pope Benedict as gifts: a cheque for 100,000 euros (Cdn$127,000); a nugget – presumably of gold – from the director of a gold mining company in Peru; and a 16th-century edition of a translation of the Aeneid.

Gabriele denied the nugget was ever in his apartment, and he said he had no idea how the cheque got there. As for the book, he said it was normal for him to take home books given to the pope to show his children.

"I didn't know its value," and, in fact, he carried it around in a plastic bag, he said.

PAPAL CORRESPONDENCE

Ganswein testified that he only began suspecting Gabriele in mid-May after a journalist published documents Ganswein knew had never left the office he shared with Gabriele.

Gabriele was arrested in May after Vatican police found papal correspondence and other items in his Vatican apartment; many of the documents dealt with allegations of corruption, abuse of power and a lack of financial transparency at the Vatican.

The papal valet – who is 46, married and has three children – faces up to four years of jail time, which he would serve in an Italian prison.